It was long tradition that the night before her formal betrothal the princess to be wed would spend the night locked in the tower of the northern keep guarded by her husband to be. It was an ancient tradition where the first king of Pridania spirited away his beloved from her homeland—the king's family's long-standing enemy----and locked her in his castle's tower to keep her safe from her father's army. The alternate version of the story is he abducted and raped the daughter of his family's rivals and kept her locked in his tower as she produced five sons and three daughters during the next twenty years. The version of the story believed largely depended on one's birthplace: west of the River Ardo believed the first version, east of the River claimed the second version to be true. The actual truth was lost to history, but the tradition for the men of the Pridan family remained.
The minor prince Dev waited at the base of the tower outside the heavy wooden door with two of his men at arms. The three of them were hardly an army, or even a decent guard, but it was just a ritual that was observed for tradition. His men had even taken the tradition of drinking wine while they waited for the midnight bell whereupon Dev would scale the tower stairs and take his bride to start their ritual betrothal.
Ven and Ord were already drunk, laughing and joking at Dev having to wait to take the maidenhead of his bride to be. When Ven made that statement, Dev snorted in response.
"Her maidenhead is long gone," he commented with a grin.
"Oh ho, and you took it I suppose?" Ord asked. He was swaying back and forth slightly as if fighting a steady breeze.
"That's what she told me...but she certainly didn't behave like a maiden when I penetrated her." Dev couldn't help but smile at the memory. Theirs hadn't been a long courtship, but it had been intense. The princess did not come to the relationship a virgin, of that Dev was sure. He didn't care the least of her history; he wasn't interested in an innocent girl for a wife, he wanted a hussy who could match his drive.
"Bit of a trollop, is she?" Ven leered.
"Not a bit," Dev said. "She's a pure trollop."
The other two burst out laughing at the braggadocio he used to display his wife-to-be's libido.
"And what would her father say about that?" Ord asked.
Dev lifted an eyebrow and looked out the corner of his eye at his loyal retainer. "I asked him about that. He said he was glad to marry her off, nothing but trouble since the day she was born, he was half worried he was going to half to ship her off to the nuns if she got a bellyful before she was married."
The two men looked in surprise at Dev, then burst out laughing again. The laughter was suddenly cut short as thick black arrows suddenly sprouted from Ord and Ven's chests. They tried to breathe, sucking heavily to catch their breath, but it was useless. The pair slid to the ground as Dev stood rooted in place, unable to move, not comprehending what was happening.
A moment later his head rang with pain and he found himself on his knees trying to clear his vision. His ears were filled with a dull roar and waves of nausea rolled over him.
"Stupid human," a guttural voice said to him. "Waiting here, on troll lands, to bed a woman. Why wait? I'll take her now."
Dev was then kicked in the stomach by a heavy leather boot. The force of the blow picked him up and threw his body against the side of the tower, knocking the wind out of his lungs. He gasped for breath as his attacker came into view. The light of the full moon illuminated the ugly face of the troll that had assaulted him. Its gray-green skin was mottled with brown spots; red eyes flared under an impossibly heavy brow and sharp, pointed teeth protruded from its maw. Black, rubbery lips pulled back in a leer of pleasure. "When I'm done with your woman, I'll come back here and kill you," the troll promised and kicked Dev in the head, knocking him out.
The troll then ripped the oak door off the hinges and entered the tower. Like most trolls he was incredibly tall and broad, this monster stood nearly eight feet tall and weighed just over a half ton, in a fight he was more than a match for any normal human. The tower had been built to defend the frontier and as such the hallways and stairs were extra wide. The troll still had difficulty working his way up the spiral staircase, his wide shoulders, heavy armor and long spear gave him little room to maneuver. The long stairway ended at the tower top room were a woman was casually lounging on the large bed covered with rich silk coverings.